THE BARRENS
A HEART-WORMING WELCOME TO ISSUE SIXTY-FOUR OF CREEPS CASTLE, BOILS AND GHOULS! I, CREEPS, have MORGUE SLIME-COVERED SELECTIONS for all of you. Just sit down in my CASTLE here by the warm CANDLEFRIGHT, and I will dish out the first DISH OF DREAD that I call... In Peterson Elementary School up, in New England, a janitor swept a hallway back in September of 1960. He whistled Jimmy Crack Corn and the bell rang. Children walked from one classroom to another one, laughing about. "Hello Randy how are you today?" the janitor proclaimed to a boy. "Hi Mr. Johnson I'm okay thanks. How about you sir?" the boy responded. "That's good. I am doing good son thank you" Mr. Johnson answered. "Hey, why don't you come down, into the basement with me? I could sure use some help please. I'll pay ya a dollar" Mr. Johnson told Randy. "Alright Mr. Johnson" he agreed, saying and the janitor took him down to the basement then. A month went by and Mr. Johnson cleaned some of the school's windows, and saw a young girl run passed him. "Hey, Wendy, remember no running young lady!" he reminded her. "Oh, hi Mr. Johnson. I'm sorry sir. I didn't want to be late for Spelling Class" Wendy responded back to him, stopping and turning around. "I understand. Say, how would you like give me a hand down in the school-basement? There's a dollar bill in it for you" the janitor explained to her with a smile and a wink. "Yes sir oh boy!" Wendy replied and followed him into the basement. The following summer, three boys were tossing rocks into a river in some wilderness together. "Glad school's out for the year fellas. Mr. Johnson really gave me the creeps" one of the boys spoke out. "Yeah, he's a weird one for a janitor, Fred" the two other ones agreed, saying to him then. "What should we do all Summer long Oscar?" the third kid asked the second one. "Do stuff like this I guess, Harry" Oscar answered. "Yeah beats homework" Harry added. Then two things surfaced within the river. They were two corpses floating in the river. "OH CRAP!" Fred yelled, pointing at them. One body was also a skeleton with long, black hair with a violet bow in it, and dressed in a violet plaid dress. The second body wore a red t-shirt and brown pants. The body had decayed-flesh, no nose and blond, short hair. It didn't have eyelids, and its eyes were stark-white with no pupils. The bodies moved both decayed-arms they had, being zombies, causing Fred, Oscar and Harry to all scream and jerk. "Help us. Please fellas. We're Wendy and Randy from school" the zombie with the long hair croaked in a distorted-voice, climbing to her feet in the water. The zombies stepped out of the river and limped to Oscar, Fred and Harry. The bones of Wendy's zombie cracked and snapped, as water and weeds dripped and fell out of the mouth of her skull. "What happened to you guys?" Harry asked the zombies, shaking in fear. "Mr. Johnson killed us both and threw our bodies into The Barrens here Harry" the zombie of Randy muttered in a distorted voice. "Please bring Mr. Johnson to The Barrens here for us guys!" the skeleton of Wendy croaked out to the boys. Harry, Oscar and Fred went to a house and Oscar rang the doorbell. Mr. Johnson answered the door, with a bottle of Ripple in his hand. "May I help you boys?" he inquired of them. "Hi, Mr. Johnson, we wanted you to come fishing with us down in The Barrens" Oscar invited. "Oh, sure boys. I'll get my fishing-pole and be right with ya. Pardon me" he told them. Minutes later, the boys and Mr. Johnson were in The Barrens together. "Were you boys Friends with Randy and Wendy Miller from school?" Mr. Johnson wondered, asking them. "Yes, Fred, Harry and I were sir" Oscar confirmed, reeling his fishing-line in. "I thought so, Oscar. Wendy and Randy were disabled. It's a mighty shame they went missing though" Mr. Johnson remarked. The zombies of Wendy and Randy Miller suddenly grabbed Mr. Johnson's fishing line and snapped it. He screamed in terror at the living-dead in the water, and they stepped out of the river a second time in their bare feet of rotting-flesh and rotting bones. "Hia Mr. Johnson. Care for a swim sir?" the zombie of Randy croaked, causing his zombified-jaw of decayed-skin to drop-open. Black circles were around his dead-eyes of pure white. The janitor was paralyzed in horror, screaming. The skeleton of Wendy Miller wrapped her drenched-skeletal-hands around his head and Randy Miller hissed eerily with his dead-mouth hanging-open. The zombies yanked Mr. Johnson down, into the river by his head, as he shook and screamed. Two minutes went by and the dead body of Mr. Johnson surfaced. The boys screamed and jerked at the sight. What a fun time for a swim in the SHIVER eh, kids? Randy and Wendy made Mr. Johnson go into the water HEADFIRST aha-ha-ha-ha. It's just as well, those kids knew he needed to GHOUL OFF IN THE WATER heh-heh-heh!